5 ms·

I'd be very curious to hear more about how exactly people are using Evernote in their day-to-day lives. I installed it on my laptop and phone a year or two ago

I'd be very curious to hear more about how exactly people are using Evernote in their day-to-day lives. I installed it on my laptop and phone a year or two ago but I could never really figure out a use for it.

nik_0_0 15y ago
Agreed, I have it on my phone, but I never really started using it in other areas. Currently I could really use a program like this to organize my notes (rather than emailing them back and forth and having no availablility on Iphone). All this huge praise for Evernote (although apparently only in Tokyo and Silicon Valley) makes it seem like a good solution, but outside of this Company of the year business, I haven't heard much since I got the app ~6 months ago.
oacgnol 15y ago
One of my primary use-cases is to save web pages that I wouldn't want to necessarily bookmark, which I normally do for frequently visited pages. Then, I can search saved notes (which searches page content too!) for whatever I need.
pkteison 15y ago
Meeting notes, shopping lists, todo lists, whiteboard photographs, names of people I've met at parties so I can remember who they are later, cigars and whiskey I've enjoyed. Every other list maker I've ever tried has suffered from either local storage - it won't be with me after I flash my phone or if I take the idevice to the store instead of the android or if I'm at my computer and left my phone downstairs - or else poor searching. Evernote makes all my info show up everywhere I am and be very well searchable, so it's become my go-to 'jot something down' system. I particularly love that they did a great job on search.
- ellyagg 15y ago
  It is an awesome list maker. Almost perfect. The auto syncing and having an app for every device are the killers. But, as a list maker, why can't I make lists in user defined order? This is one of the most fundamental things a list maker should be able to do. It's so painful it's almost a deal breaker. There is no more natural way to sort things into priority order. I need to be able to switch to different notebooks (and tags, potentially) and immediately see what's most important, but the only way to do that now is clumsy hacks and workarounds. I can't throw stuff in and iterate over it until it's a hunk of polished gold. Instead, I have to come up with a "system" to manage it all. It's frustrating. Dragging things into order is the most low-tech way of prioritizing work. I read recently that low-tech solutions appeal to geeks, so maybe that's why it appeals to me. The fact that you can't drag stuff into order forces you to over-engineer your approach to task management. For now, I make lists inside notes, but then I lose much of the power that makes evernote useful in the first place.
- damptrousers 15y ago
  "For flights, I store all my itinerary information, and also make a note of the parking location in a special note. Never forget that way. I have a note for all my emergency contact information. I have a notebook for date ideas for my wife and I." Again, you could do this in simplenote /notational velocity. You're using a sledgehammer to do really simple tasks.
rcourtie 15y ago
I have an interest in fashion and interior design, and Evernote is how I save images of looks that I like or might consider buying in the future. It's nice, it can save images, textual descriptions and the source with very little effort. With the Chrome plugin I don't even need the Evernote app to be open to save notes.
gallamine 15y ago
I'm doing job interviews and I take a picture of every business card I get handed. Evernote will OCR them and store them forever, so I can trash the cards and have access to the data in the future. For flights, I store all my itinerary information, and also make a note of the parking location in a special note. Never forget that way. I have a note for all my emergency contact information. I have a notebook for date ideas for my wife and I.
scottyallen 15y ago
I've stopped filing paper in a filing cabinet. Now I just scan it and throw it out. (I should be shredding it, but haven't gotten around to buying a shredder). This takes strictly less time than filing it by hand, is more enjoyable, and best of all, it's searchable. Details: I bought a Fujitsu ScanSnap sheet fed scanner (loads paper in a hopper like a fax machine) off of Ebay for $100. It has decent Evernote integration, such that I can drop in a sheet of paper, push a button, and have it scan both sides of the sheet of paper directly to Evernote.

nik_0_0 15y ago

Agreed, I have it on my phone, but I never really started using it in other areas. Currently I could really use a program like this to organize my notes (rather than emailing them back and forth and having no availablility on Iphone). All this huge praise for Evernote (although apparently only in Tokyo and Silicon Valley) makes it seem like a good solution, but outside of this Company of the year business, I haven't heard much since I got the app ~6 months ago.

oacgnol 15y ago

One of my primary use-cases is to save web pages that I wouldn't want to necessarily bookmark, which I normally do for frequently visited pages. Then, I can search saved notes (which searches page content too!) for whatever I need.

pkteison 15y ago

Meeting notes, shopping lists, todo lists, whiteboard photographs, names of people I've met at parties so I can remember who they are later, cigars and whiskey I've enjoyed. Every other list maker I've ever tried has suffered from either local storage - it won't be with me after I flash my phone or if I take the idevice to the store instead of the android or if I'm at my computer and left my phone downstairs - or else poor searching. Evernote makes all my info show up everywhere I am and be very well searchable, so it's become my go-to 'jot something down' system. I particularly love that they did a great job on search.

ellyagg 15y ago
It is an awesome list maker. Almost perfect. The auto syncing and having an app for every device are the killers. But, as a list maker, why can't I make lists in user defined order? This is one of the most fundamental things a list maker should be able to do. It's so painful it's almost a deal breaker. There is no more natural way to sort things into priority order. I need to be able to switch to different notebooks (and tags, potentially) and immediately see what's most important, but the only way to do that now is clumsy hacks and workarounds. I can't throw stuff in and iterate over it until it's a hunk of polished gold. Instead, I have to come up with a "system" to manage it all. It's frustrating. Dragging things into order is the most low-tech way of prioritizing work. I read recently that low-tech solutions appeal to geeks, so maybe that's why it appeals to me. The fact that you can't drag stuff into order forces you to over-engineer your approach to task management. For now, I make lists inside notes, but then I lose much of the power that makes evernote useful in the first place.
damptrousers 15y ago
"For flights, I store all my itinerary information, and also make a note of the parking location in a special note. Never forget that way. I have a note for all my emergency contact information. I have a notebook for date ideas for my wife and I." Again, you could do this in simplenote /notational velocity. You're using a sledgehammer to do really simple tasks.

rcourtie 15y ago

I have an interest in fashion and interior design, and Evernote is how I save images of looks that I like or might consider buying in the future. It's nice, it can save images, textual descriptions and the source with very little effort. With the Chrome plugin I don't even need the Evernote app to be open to save notes.

gallamine 15y ago

I'm doing job interviews and I take a picture of every business card I get handed. Evernote will OCR them and store them forever, so I can trash the cards and have access to the data in the future. For flights, I store all my itinerary information, and also make a note of the parking location in a special note. Never forget that way. I have a note for all my emergency contact information. I have a notebook for date ideas for my wife and I.

scottyallen 15y ago

I've stopped filing paper in a filing cabinet. Now I just scan it and throw it out. (I should be shredding it, but haven't gotten around to buying a shredder). This takes strictly less time than filing it by hand, is more enjoyable, and best of all, it's searchable. Details: I bought a Fujitsu ScanSnap sheet fed scanner (loads paper in a hopper like a fax machine) off of Ebay for $100. It has decent Evernote integration, such that I can drop in a sheet of paper, push a button, and have it scan both sides of the sheet of paper directly to Evernote.